Swede is a root vegetable that is a big source of vitamin C. It is also known as Rutabaga or Swedish turnip. Its root is used in various types of dishes and its leaves are used as a separate leaf vegetable. These are widely used as non-food items as well, like for Halloween.

I hate ice milk in any flavor. It is the pallid invention of desperate dairymen and profiteering Pateurizers, a response to a call from He Who Lives in Little Kids' Toilets, namely, Nick. Sssh...he's on his coffee break.

I'm lucky to live in a place where coffee is king. This is practically in my back yard

Tres Marias de Naranjo

Credit: little Z

Credit: little Z

and when I need to recreate the easiest option is to take a walk through beautiful coffee fields. We live right on the border of a big Cooperative farm and there are kilometers of farm roads. The cafetales are great for birding as there are still plenty of trees and small forest patches. I'll occasionally run into a Jaguarundi (small wild cat), Coyote, Gray Fox, Coati, or Aguti (big rodent).

Credit: little Z

Credit: little Z

Credit: little Z

Credit: little Z

looks like it is going to be a good harvest this year, which will start in December here. There appears to be little effect from the rust fungus, so far.

Credit: little Z

Credit: little Z

Naranjo is one of the top quality producing regions in a country known for good coffee. A local farm just won the annual coffee taste-off. Here's a blurb from the local English language newspaper, the Tico Times:

Twenty international judges evaluated more than 30 Tico coffee samples and determined that Costa Rica’s best coffee is produced in Naranjo, Alajuela, at 1,650 meters above sea level, and in San Marcos de Tarrazú, south of the capital.

Two coffee processing centers, or beneficios, located in these cantons took the top spots in the "2013 Costa Rica Cup of Excellence" Friday evening.

Of the 30 samples tested, 22 surpassed the minimum qualification of 85, needed to participate in a worldwide online auction that will take place on June 19.

Oldermar Arrieta and his wife, Marlene Brenes, are the owners of “Beneficio Vista al Valle" in Naranjo, where they sell their coffee. Now they expect to sell it across the country.

They were extremely happy for the win, especially since the company is 100-percent family-run. The couple operates the farm and beneficio with only the help of three children.

Last year’s Cup of Excellence was won by Beneficio Brumas del Zurquí, from Heredia. Representatives of Costa Rica in the global auction were able to obtain up to $45 a pound for their coffee.

Judges said they were impressed with the quality on display at this year's competition, especially since a decrease in international coffee prices and losses caused by coffee rust fungus have affected many coffee farms in Costa Rica. It is estimated that more than 90 of the farms affected are run by small farmers.

Sadly, bean stocks are still at an alltime high so combined with the
expected record harvest in Brasil prices for the average producer will
remain low, as in about $1/lb. I don't get how that translates into $8-10
per pound at the store. Well, I know but it isn't right.